PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Dragos G. Zaharescu
AU  - Peter S. Hooda
AU  - Carmen I. Burghelea
AU  - Antonio Palanca-Soler
TI  - A multiscale framework for deconstructing the ecosystem physical template of high altitudes lakes
AID  - 10.1101/034405
DP  - 2015 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 034405
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2015/12/15/034405.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2015/12/15/034405.full
AB  - An ecosystem is generally sustained by a set of integrated physical elements forming a functional landscape unit-ecotope, which supplies nutrients, microclimate, and exchanges matter and energy with the wider environment. To better predict environmental change effects on ecosystems, particularly in critically sensitive regions such as high altitudes, it is imperative to recognise how their natural landscape heterogeneity works at different scales to shape habitats and sustain biota communities prior to major changes.We conducted a comprehensive survey of catchment physical, geological and ecological properties of 354 high altitude lakes and ponds in the axial Pyrenees at a variety of scales, in order to formulate and test an integrated model encompassing major flows and interactions that drive lake ecosystems.Three composite drivers encompassed most of the variability in lake catchment characteristics. In order of their statistical weight they were: (i) hydrology/hydrodynamics-responsible for type and discharge of inlets/outlets, and for water body size; (ii) bedrock geomorphology, summarizing geology, slope and fractal order-all dictating vegetation cover of catchment slope and lake shore, and the presence of aquatic vegetation. And, (iii) topography, i.e. catchment formation type-driving lakes connectivity, and the presence of summer snow deposits. While (i) appeared to be local, (ii) and (iii) showed gradient changes along altitude and latitude. These three drivers differentiated several lake ecotopes based on their landscape similarities. The three-driver model was successfully tested on a riparian vegetation composition dataset, further illustrating the validity of the concept.The findings inform on the relative contribution of scale-dependent catchment physical elements to lake ecotope and ecosystem formation, which represents vital information about main factors predicting the natural functioning of high altitude lakes, which should inform any assessment of potentially major deleterious effects due to environmental/climate change.